Reliving Nightmares
by Numb3rsfan
Summary: Charlie is having nightmares about his youth, but the nightmares aren't what he expected.
1. So it begins

**Title: Reliving Nightmares **

**Author: Numb3rsfan**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Warning(s): Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3rs. This fic was made for the enjoyment of the reader.**

**Summary:Charlie is having nightmares about his youth, but the nightmares aren't what he expected.**

Chapter One

_BANG BANG BANG._

_SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE._

_Four year old Charlie Eppton opened his eyes and sat bolt upright in his bed._

_SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE._

_There it was again! That scary sound coming from outside._

_Getting up, little Charlie gulped as he made his way to the window and looked through the curtain._

_Outside the storm was howling, causing the nearby tree branches to scrape across Charlie's bedroom window._

_Letting out the breath he had been holding, Charlie turned to go back to bed when he stopped, hearing pounding feet on the stairs._

_Seconds later his bedroom door was flung open and two people, a man and a woman, entered the room._

"_Momma!" Charlie said as he rushed forward, into his mother's arms._

_His mother scooped him up and then followed her husband outside of Charlie's room and down to the first floor._

"_Weatherman said it's big! Come on, we don't have much time." Charlie's father said as he guided his wife and young son outside, into the storm._

_Rain hit their faces and lightning made their hair stand on end as they rushed towards the truck, since they had never gotten a storm shelter installed._

"_Momma!" Charlie screamed into his mother's shirt as rain water began to chill him to the bone._

"_It's ok sweetie, momma's got you." His mother said reassuringly as they arrived at the truck._

_Charlie's father threw open the door and waited as his mother climbed in, with Charlie still in her arms._

_After slamming the door, Mr. Eppton ran to the other side of the truck and climbed in to the drivers seat._

_Putting the key in to the ignition, he turned it and listened to the truck's engine roar to life._

_But, not two seconds later, an explosion turned their attention towards the house, just in time to see a big, huge tree fall right in the middle of it!_

"_Oh my God! The house!" Charlie's mother said._

"_Let's not worry about that now. Let's focus on getting you and Charlie to safety." Mr. Eppton said as he floored the truck, but instead of moving forward, the truck didn't move at all._

"_Honey!" Mrs. Eppton said, getting really frightened when the truck didn't move._

"_We're stuck!" Came the reply as Mr. Eppton gritted his teeth, still trying to get the truck moving._

_Suddenly the back end of the truck was lifted off the ground, causing Mr. Eppton to look at his wife and grip her hand before leaning over and hugging them tightly before the whole truck was lifted off the ground._

_Young Charlie was screaming his head off, half because he was scared stiff, and partly because his parents were holding him so tight._

"_Momma! Daddy!" Charlie kept screaming over and over as the truck flew through the air._

_Charlie was able to peek out the window just in time to see the ground rushing up to meet him, his parents and the truck._

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Gasping, Charlie sat up in his bed, putting a hand to his heart as he looked around his darkened bedroom. As his ears became used to the quiet of the room, Charlie soon realized what had woken him up. It was the scraping of the tree branch against his window.

The images of his nightmare were still fresh in his mind as Charlie mulled over them.

Who were those people? Who were the Eppton's? Had Charlie really been a part of their family?

All those questions and more echoed through his head as Charlie sat in his bed.

Finally, not being able to stand the silence, Charlie rose, grabbed his bathrobe and slipped into it, before tying it around his waist, and exiting his room.

Creeping downstairs, Charlie passed his father's room, and then just missed his brother's old room as he went down the stairs and entered the living room.

Walking over to the couch, Charlie settled down in to it as he focused on the far wall where different pictures hung. Some of them were of him and Don, some of his father Alan, and his mother Margaret.

But one picture in particular was illuminated in the moonlight. It was one of him and Don, but Charlie was in Don's arms. Both of them had smiles on their faces and ice cream mustaches around their mouths.

Charlie remembered that day like it was yesterday, but how come if he really had other parents, how come he didn't remember them? Aside from the nightmare he had just had?

Charlie didn't have the answers to these questions, but he certainly wanted to find out.

Sighing, Charlie curled up on the couch, shut his eyes and fell asleep.


	2. In to the Night

Reliving Nightmares Chapter 2

Don came plodding down the stairs in a short sleeved, grey T-Shirt, blue jeans, and socks.

For once in his life he had agreed with his superiors and had taken a week's time off from work, but after just 12 hours of staying at Charlie's house, Don wished that he hadn't taken the time off.

Don cupped a hand over his mouth as he yawned before turning and entering the living room to read the morning paper, which, for some strange reason wasn't there!

The one thing that was there, curled up on the couch, was Charlie, snoring softly.

Scrunching his eyebrows, Don approached his younger brother, taking in Charlie's features.

Charlie's cheeks were rosy and he looked perfectly healthy, except for the lines around his eyes, which told Don that Charlie had had a bad night.

Leaning over, Don placed a hand of Charlie's robed shoulder and gently shook it.

Almost immediately Charlie's eyes flew open and he looked at Don calmly.

"You feeling alright Charlie?" Don asked as his little brother yawned and sat up on the couch, but not before checking to make sure his robe was still cinched tight around his waist.

"Not sure, Don." Charlie admitted softly, before he looked up and met his brother's cool, calm gaze.

"Well, tell me what the problem is, and then we can fix it." Don offered, seeing how distressed Charlie looked.

"Not really sure we can do that. It was just a nightmare Don…I'll get over it." Charlie said, plastering a fake smile on to his face in the hopes that Don would buy it and leave it at that.

Don shot Charlie a look before he nodded his head and said, "Well, if you ever need to talk about it, I'll listen."

"I know Don, I know." Charlie replied as he watched his brother turn away, go to the front door, open it, and then walk outside to retrieve the morning paper.

'_It was just a dream, Charlie. No need to make your nightmare someone else's problem. It'll just go away.'_ Charlie kept telling himself as he rose up from the couch and plodded back up the stairs to throw on some real clothes.

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At 9:48 PM, Charlie sat in his bed, leaning up against the headboard with a yellow notepad and a pencil in his hands.

He was busy writing down some equations for his class in the morning, and was barely paying any attention to what was going on outside his bedroom door.

The sun had long since set, and it looked to be a beautiful, if not windy night.

For once the full moon would be seen that night, instead of hidden behind storm clouds, that just loved to appear over the LA area.

'_Charlie'_

Charlie looked up from his notepad and glanced at his closed bedroom door.

"Dad? Don?" He asked.

Not hearing any reply from his father or brother, Charlie scrunched his eyebrows, threw back the covers and rose up from his bed.

Plodding over to the door, Charlie opened it and looked out into the darkened hallway.

Not seeing anything, Charlie opened the door further and walked out into the hall.

Turning towards the stairs, Charlie saw the lights downstairs go out, seconds before he heard his father's footsteps coming up the stairs.

Alan, for his part, stopped when he reached the top of the stairs.

Right in front of him, standing at the entrance to Charlie's room, was a shadow in the shape of a human.

"Charlie?" Alan asked.

The figure shifted, and then Alan knew it was his youngest son standing there.

Walking over to him, Alan put a hand on Charlie's arm and asked, "What's wrong, Charlie?"

Charlie shook his head and said, "Nothing…nothing dad."

Turning, Charlie reentered his bedroom and shut the door, before standing there, his back against the door.

He would have sworn that he had heard his name being called by a female voice, but that wasn't possible since his mother had died two and a half years earlier.

Sighing, Charlie rubbed his eyes and walked back over to his bed and crawled back under the covers.

For the first time since Charlie had been afraid of the dark all those years ago, he was afraid to go to sleep. Afraid that the nightmare, and those people would return.

Shuddering, Charlie turned on his side, away from the window and focused on the darkest corner of the room, hoping to keep the sleep that threatened to overtake him, at bay.

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_#Flashback#_

_Charlie opened his eyes and lifted his head. Everything around him was dark, but the charred smell of something burning permeated the air, telling him that he should get moving._

_Moving his small arm, Charlie gasped when he felt something right beside him. It felt like another arm, but it was cold and unmoving._

_Lowering his hand, Charlie felt the soft fabric of a dress, and realized that the arm he had felt must have been his mother's._

_As his eyes became adjusted to the darkness, Charlie was able to make out two shapes right beside him._

_One of the shapes was leaning up against the side of the truck, but it was bent at an odd angle._

_The other shape was half in the floor, and half in the lap of the other shape._

_Blinking, the shapes began to take on the features of a male and a female. Charlie Eppton's parents._

_Charlie's mother was leaning against the inside of the truck's passenger door. Her head was slumped against the back of the seat, but it was twisted at an odd angle, suggesting a broken neck._

_Charlie's father was mostly lying in the floor of the truck, but his head and right arm were lying in Mrs. Eppton's lap. _

_Swallowing his fear at how still they were, Charlie reached out a shaky hand and shook his father's shoulder._

"_Daddy..wake up." Charlie said in a small, frightened tone of voice._

_Not a word of a movement was seen or heard from the man. He just lay unmoving on the floor of the pickup._

"_Momma?" Charlie asked as he turned his pleading gaze on his mother. Scared, he reached out a hand and shook his mother's shoulder, but he got the same results._

_As the fear set in, Charlie's breathing began to speed up as he kept shaking his mother's shoulder, trying to get her to respond._

"_Momma! Momma! Wake up!" He kept saying, but no words ever came out of his mother's mouth._

_Finally the smoke became too much for young Charlie, forcing him to stop trying to wake his parents and crawl out of the truck._

_Once outside the overturned truck, four year old Charlie Eppton turned and looked back at it seconds before it exploded, throwing Charlie to the ground._

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Gasping, Charlie sat bolt upright again. The nightmare had been the same, except that he didn't relive the first part.

Throwing back the covers, Charlie got up and threw on some clothes and shoes before he walked out of his room and went down to the living room.

Once there, Charlie's first instinct was to go crawl up on the couch, but he didn't give in to that urge.

Instead Charlie went to the front door, unlocked it and walked outside, carefully shutting the door behind him.

Estimating that he had around 4 to 4 ½ hours before sunrise, Charlie picked a direction and started walking.

He knew that when Don and Alan woke up to find Charlie gone, that their first instinct would be to look for him at CalSci, and that was the very reason why Charlie wasn't heading to CalSci.

Shivering in the slightly cold air, Charlie walked on for what seemed like hours. After 30 minutes he passed CalSci, but he kept on walking without giving the school a second glance.

Next, Charlie came to a park, some three miles past CalSci. In the park, Charlie saw the homeless curled up on park benches and on the ground.

Ignoring them, Charlie walked to the middle of the park, only stopping when he spotted an empty park bench.

Walking over to it, Charlie sat down on its rough, wooden surface and began to mull over his most recent nightmare.


	3. First Meeting

Authors Notes: Alrighty, for those of you who have kept at me to get another chapter up, thanks for your patience, and enjoy the latest chapter!

Reliving Nightmares Chapter 3

The sun rose up blanketing the sky is colors of pink before rising higher, causing the sky to take on it's normal blue color.

Rising with the sun was Don Eppes, who was used to getting up at the crack of dawn.

Throwing back the covers, Don rubbed his face and yawned before sliding out of bed and plodding downstairs, his hair sticking up in places.

Walking in to the living room, Don stopped and looked at the empty couch.

'_Huh, Charlie must'a had a good night, then.'_ Don thought as he opened the door and grabbed the morning paper off of the porch, before re closing the front door.

Flopping down on the couch, Don unfolded the paper and glanced at the front page, before he put the paper down and looked around. The house was so quiet…to quiet actually.

Normally Charlie would be up by then, munching on breakfast or scribbling equations on his yellow notebook, but not this morning.

Finding this a little on the unusual side, Don rose up, lay the paper down and went plodding back up the stairs.

He passed his old room, then his father's room before arriving at the closed door leading in to Charlie's room.

Raising a hand, Don meant to knock before he lowered his hand and grasped the doorknob. Opening the door Don peeked his head in to see the bed covers thrown back, obvious signs that at one point Charlie had been in bed.

Curious, Don opened the door wider and walked in to the room.

"Charlie?" He asked, looking around his brother's room with a practiced eye.

On the little desk sat Charlie's laptop, the top closed and the power off.

Going over to the computer, Don put a hand on it and discovered that it was cool to the touch, meaning that it hadn't been on since the previous day.

Looking towards Charlie's dresser, Don saw that one of the drawers was slanted and not fully closed. Walking over to it, Don opened it up and looked in. Not really seeing anything amiss, Don closed the drawer and looked down at the floor where Charlie's shoes should have been, but instead all he saw was the wood floor.

The panic alarm not fully going off in his head yet, Don left Charlie's room and went back to his bedroom, down the hall.

Once there, Don went to his chest of drawers and grabbed his cellphone, quickly flipping it open and dialing Charlie's cellphone, which was on speed dial.

Just as Don was putting his cellphone to his ear, he could hear something back in Charlie's room.

Scrunching his eyebrows, Don walked back, listening as the Dukes of Hazzard theme song which Charlie had programmed in to his cellphone got louder as Don got closer to Charlie's room.

Entering the room, Don walked over to the phone just as Waylon Jennings sang the last verse.

Snatching up the phone, Don killed the power, making the song stop.

Sighing Don said, "Charlie…" before he turned and left the room to throw on a pair of shoes and go search for his brother.

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_Charlie Eppton threw his hands over his head, protecting himself as the debris from the truck rained down. After several minutes he looked up at the burning truck, knowing that his parents were dead._

"_Momma!" Charlie said with a trembling jaw as the tears started pouring down his face._

_Sitting up, young Charlie Eppton drew his knees up and lowered his head, before he started crying with a vengeance._

_What Charlie didn't notice was that there was no sound at all save for the roaring of the fire. But other than that there was no rain, no wind, no birds in the nearby trees…no nothing. It was as if the whole world was put on mute._

_Slowly raindrops came trickling down before it started to rain harder, eventually becoming a steady stream of rain hitting the young boy and the truck._

_The fire which had burned so hotly was slowly put out thanks to the on going rain, but once it was out, Charlie didn't rise up and go investigate it, he just stayed where he was, knees drawn up and head down._

_Gradually the sound of a car was heard coming towards him, but Charlie paid no mind to it as he focused on the darkness in his mind. Suddenly however a light seemed to appear in that darkness, a light that Charlie couldn't block out no matter how hard the little boy tried._

_His mother's voice came to him. Her voice was as sweet as wind rustling through the trees. The words his mother spoke were mathematical terms that she had learned in college, and she had been saying the words to Charlie even before he had been born._

_All the time Charlie's mother had spouted off a little mathematical knowledge to her son, even when he had been a baby. As he grew a little older, Charlie stopped paying attention to it, but now with his mother gone, her words came back to him, and Charlie realized that he actually understood the higher up educational mathematical mumbo jumbo that his mother had been saying._

_Charlie's mind filled with numbers, numbers that he could understand._

_He was so busy concentrating on this new found wonder that he didn't hear the car stop behind him, nor the opening of two doors._

"_Oh my gosh, Alan!" A female voice said from behind Charlie._

"_Honey, get in out of the rain!" a much younger Alan Eppes said._

"_But Alan, we need to help him!" Margaret replied, leaving the safety of holding the car door and walking over to the boy who had his knees drawn up and his head down._

_Kneeling down, Margaret Eppes touched the shoulder of the dark haired, four year old, who lifted up his young, tear stained face towards her._

"_Oh, honey…" Margaret said, gently pulling the young boy towards her._

_Charlie tried to resist this woman's comforting touch, but his need to be comforted overwhelmed him and he stopped resisting and even moved himself closer as Margaret wrapped her arms around him and picked him up off the ground._

_Charlie for his part wrapped his arms around Margaret's neck and buried his face on his shoulder and continued to cry over his parents._

"_Ssshhh, it's gonna be ok." Margaret whispered in to Charlie's ear as she walked back over to the car and got in, closing the door behind her._

_Alan also got back in and closed the driver's side door behind him before he looked at his wife._

"_Honey, we can't keep him." Alan said, seeing that his wife already had that motherly gleam in her eyes._

"_Honey, he's all alone." Margaret said, looking back at her husband with that knowing look of hers._

"_You don't know that. He may have other relatives who will want to take care of him. Besides, we already have one son." Alan replied._

_Charlie listened as the nice lady and the man who was obviously her husband, argue about what was to become of him._

_After being in the woman's arms, she reminded young Charlie so much of his real mother that Charlie didn't want to be separated from her._

_The woman for her part seemed to sense this, for she slightly tightened her grip around the boy in her arms._

"_Who knows Alan. Maybe Don and this little boy will get along." Margaret said._

_She saw Alan shake his head, but before he could say something Margaret said, "What we will do is place him in a foster home while we file for adoption. But I will not sit by and watch this poor boy be sent to an orphanage!"_

"_M..my name…Charlie." Charlie whispered in Margaret's arms._

"_What is it, sweetie?" Margaret asked, looking at the boy, giving him her attention._

"_My name's Charlie." Charlie whispered again, looking at her with his sad, brown eyes._

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"_My name's Charlie…My name's Charlie…My name's Charlie." _

The young voice faded from his mind as Charlie woke up and sat up on the park bench.

Everything seemed so clear to him now, but Charlie began to wonder if it had all been just a nightmare, because he couldn't even remember first seeing Margaret and Alan.

His first memories were of them and he honestly thought they had been his real parents…until the nightmares had started.

Sighing, Charlie lowered his head and looked at the grass as he tried to come to terms with his newest nightmare.


End file.
